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This past weekend, I attended the 2010 Eyegore Awards and Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios Hollywood for a night of spooky maze goodness. As with previous years, I took a ton of photos from all the mazes, but I'm still piecing those together and getting them ready to go up on the site this week. While you wait, you can enjoy Doc Mock's two-part red carpet coverage of the 2010 Eyegore Awards. Doc spoke with a lot o' people in the horror biz this year, including Christopher Lloyd, Sid Haig, Corey Feldman and more, so I'm sure you're gonna enjoy all the footage!

PART 1:

PART 2:

For more on Doc Mock, including show info and archived episodes, be sure to check out www.docmock.com.

I know it's not technically a Halloween update, but I promised you guys I would post the video I was in with Rowdy Roddy Piper as soon as it went live. Maybe it is kind of Halloweeny since he's fighting against the horrors of childhood obesity. Either way, I'm really glad the video turned out so well, because the entire crew had a blast making it, so I hope you all enjoy it!

We've already seen some pretty impressive automotive tributes to our horror heroes in the past, such as the Nightmare on Elm Street Camaro, but this recent eBay listing for a customized 1965 Ford Econoline "Freddy vs. Jason" van really impressed me. We're talking about a true fan of both series who really went all out on making this van the ultimate tribute to A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. Granted, vans will always have a creepy stigma attached to them, so if you're going to be the person who drives one, you might as well drive one that proudly embraces the the world of horror. Let's take a look at some of the features of this madman machine on wheels.

First off, each side of the van is dedicated to one of the psychopaths. Freddy Krueger's side has a scratch on it along with the classic "One, two, Freddy's coming for you..." playground rhyme from the films, while Jason Voorhees' side features a "Welcome to Camp Crystal Lake" sign. The entire van is obviously painted to match the killer theme, plus there are cutouts of Freddy and Jason looking out the rear door windows. My favorite part of the van, however, is definitely the roof:

Easily the most eye catching feature of the entire van is the fact that it's equipped with not one, but two clear roof domes containing busts of Freddy and Jason. That alone is an amazing feature, but they're also motorized, so their heads actually do a full rotation four times per minute. I love that they're not even the greatest busts of both guys, they're kind of cheap looking sculpts which only makes it all the more endearing in my book.

The owner spared no expenses on the inside of the van either. As you can see, he includes two 6 foot tall animatronic statues of Freddy and Jason (the same ones you may have seen for sale at the seasonal Halloween shops and K-Mart), and has also covered the side door windows with crayon artistic renditions of the two monsters, as if to suggest some kids have already been picked up in this van. You can always tell when a lot of love has gone into a project, and it's absolutely clear that this was the case with the Freddy vs. Jason van.

The van has plenty of other nice bells & whistles, new auto meter gauges, custom upholstery, bobblehead figures, 3D sculpts of the characters busting through the wall, plus a DVD player and screens so you can watch all the Elm Street and Friday the 13th flicks in the comfort of your horror chariot. In total, the seller claimed to have invested over $30,000 in the van, but it never did sell on eBay. I guess that's not surprising since it is still just a van, but if I had the means, I would be the first in line to take this wicked wagon out for a spin come Halloween. I'd even equip it with one of those ice cream delivery truck jingles that play wherever you drive it to really seal the deal. Ah well... I can dream.

(Big thanks to Brad for showing me this amazing vehicular homage to two of my favorite slashers!)

I know superhero products don't look Halloweeny at first glance, but when you find green Hostess snack cakes in the Halloween section of your local Target store, and the box refers to them as "Individually Wrapped Scary Cakes"... they are decidedly a Halloween treat. Ok, it's actually The Flash who has cupcakes (Flash Cakes) that are referred to as "Scary Cakes", but they clearly meant to do that with the Green Lantern ones too since they came out at the same time and mention the Halloween contest. I'm guessing the package designers were probably just too distracted by the horror that is glowing green spongy cake orbs to remember to change the description. And really, what could be scarier than being offered a mouthful of the Green Lantern's glowing balls? Granted, these snack cakes don't actually glow, but "GLO" is so heavily emphasized on the packaging that they should be able to glow. Just look at 'em:

I thought the packaging was maybe an exaggeration, but holy balls, these things are bright green! We're talking borderline neon here, folks. I just wish they weren't covered in coconut, because I hate coconut and can't give anything with coconut an unbiased review. Suffice to say, they taste exactly like every other Sno Ball I've ever tried, so if you're a fan of the original ones, you'll be a fan of these Glo Balls too.

Of course, Hostess changing the name of their Sno Balls for various promotions is nothing new. They've done official orange Halloween Glo Balls in the past, complete with "scream" filling, and even created monstrosities like blue B.O.B. Cakes. I think we can all agree that Sno Balls are one of the most unnatural food creations to ever walk the earth, and these Green Lantern Glo testicl... er... Balls are just the latest incarnation in a long lineage of taste bud terror. And yes, they can walk the earth. We haven't seen them do it, but we know they can. It's like that old adage: When the humans are away, the Sno Balls will come out and play.

Scary as these Glo Balls may be, they're still an homage to Hal Jordan and Halloween, and I feel as though I need do something to pay tribute to them. So here's a special video I made just for you:

Now then... who's hungry for some Green Lantern Glo Balls? Any takers?

Ok, so this doesn't look like a Halloween product at first glance, but Target store managers realized it belonged with all the Halloween merchandise, because that's exactly where they put this Yoda bobblehead figure. What the hell happened to him? I know the guy lives in the swamps of Dagobah, not exactly the nicest place to vacation, but he's clearly seen better days than this. Let's just come right out and say it: Yoda looks like a zombie.

Well, it turns out this is part of a new line of Funko Star Wars "Monster Mash-Ups" bobblehead figures, and while it's funny seeing Darth Vader as Frankenstein's monster, a Stormtrooper as a Skeleton (Skeletrooper?), and Chewbacca as the Wolfman, the "bloodthirsty gargoyle" Yoda is just downright frightening.

I've always loved Yoda, what with the amusing way he communicates in reversed fragments and enjoys riding on Luke piggyback style, but this twisted rendition of his face is the last thing I want to see bobbling around on my dashboard every day. Seriously, just look at it:

Look at those eyes... bloodshot, lifeless and I'm sure they'd show absolutely no remorse over eating you and your loved ones alive. And honestly, is there a scarier thought than that of a zombie with Grand Master Jedi powers? One minute you're walking down the road, minding your own business, the next you're willfully handing over your guts on a platter because some zombie pulled the ol' Jedi mind trick on you. Sorry, but a Jedi craves not these things. Big thanks to both Ava and Brad for pointing out this disturbance in the Force to me.

SURVEY: If you were going to turn a character from the Star Wars universe into a monster, what would you turn them into and why? I'll start us off. I'd turn a Jawa into one of the dwarfs from Phantasm. Hell, they're already the same height and wearing the same outfit... all they'd need is the Tall Man to lead them. BOYYYYY! OOTINI!

Ok, not really. Truth is, we just migrated all of I-Mockery to a new server. It's a big upgrade from what we were on before with more RAM and all that jazz, so you should notice the site performing far more smoothly now with no downtime. Please drop a comment in this blog thread to let me know if you're able to see it aok and if you're encountering any errors on the site. I-Mockery is a huge site and there was a whole boatload o' content we had to move to the new server. We've already tested it thoroughly, but I want to make sure it's not giving anybody any errors because some Gremlins are still lurking around in it. After all, what could be scarier this Halloween season than a broken web site?